Carlo Maderno, (born 1556, Bissone, Milan—died Jan. 30, 1629, Rome), leading Roman architect of the early 17th century, who determined the style of early Baroque architecture.

Maderno began his architectural career in Rome assisting his uncle Domenico Fontana. His first major Roman commission, the facade of Santa Susanna (1597–1603), led to his appointment in 1603 as the chief architect for Saint Peter’s. In 1607 he designed the nave and a new facade for Saint Peter’s and was made architect to Pope Paul V. Maderno’s additions to Saint Peter’s were consonant with the spirit of the Counter-Reformation; by adding the nave he transformed Michelangelo’sGreek-cross plan into a longitudinal one, thus reverting to the scheme of early Christian and Medieval cathedrals. His facade has been both criticized for impairing the effect of Michelangelo’s dome and admired for its forceful grouping of huge engaged columns. The only building completely designed by Maderno is Santa Maria della Vittoria (1608–20); all his other projects, such as San Andrea della Valle and the Palazzo Barberini (1625), were either works he only began or other architects’ works he finished. The Palazzo Barberini, which Maderno designed for the family of Pope Urban VIII, was completed by Francesco Borromini and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, whose works were influenced by Maderno.

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present basilica of St. Peter in Vatican City (an enclave in Rome), begun by Pope Julius II in 1506 and completed in 1615 under Paul V. It is designed as a three-aisled Latin cross with a dome at the crossing, directly above the high altar, which covers the shrine of St. Peter the Apostle. The...

...follower, Giacomo della Porta, who gave a more vertical expression to the dome by raising it about 25 feet (8 metres) higher than a semicircle. In the early 17th century, the Baroque architect Carlo Maderno added a large nave and facade to the front of the church, converting it into a Latin cross plan and destroying the dominating quality of the dome, at least from the exterior front.

The work of Carlo Maderno in Rome represented the first pure statement of the principles that became the basis of most of the architecture of the Western world in the 17th century. A northern Italian, Maderno worked most of his life in Rome where, about 1597, he designed the revolutionary facade of the church of Santa Susanna. Roman church facades in the late 16th century tended to be either...